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Monday, July 26, 2010

Wouldn't it be nice if we could have a Supe leave without a cloud over his head?

USNA Faculty and Staff,VADM Miller and I will conduct a change of command ceremony on Aug 3 at 1p.m. in Alumni Hall. While the ceremony is not open to the general public, I want to extend an invitation to faculty and staff who are available and desire to attend.

It has been an honor to serve as the superintendent of the Naval Academy these past three years.

Throughout my tour I have been impressed with the dedication of USNA’s faculty and staff who are committed to the singular purpose of educating and developing the future leaders of Sailors and Marines.

Additionally, the support of the community, alumni, parents and friends of USNA has been and will continue to be instrumental in the Naval Academy being able to achieve its mission with a margin of excellence beneficial to all midshipmen.

It also has been a privilege to be affiliated with the young men and women of the Brigade of Midshipmen. They come from across the United States of America, representing the greatest attributes and future of our nation. During my tenure, every class that was present entered and graduated from the Naval Academy while the nation’s military was engaged in combat. These Americans seek the responsibility of service to their country. Many have proven their mettle with deployments in harm’s way shortly after graduation. It with the greatest confidence that I say our Navy and Marine Corps will be in good hands with this newest generation of leaders.

I welcome Admiral Miller and his wife Barbara to the Naval Academy family. His leadership and career experiences will no doubt serve the academy well in accomplishing its important mission. I hope that you soon get an opportunity to make them feel at home, and I wish them the best.

While Katie and I look forward to the future, we will always look back fondly upon our time with the Navy family after my 32 years of commissioned service, including our most recent years spent here at Annapolis. We have met many great friends, shipmates and mentors. We wish you and your loved ones “fair winds and following seas.”

Vice Adm. Jeffrey L. Fowler

Superintendent, USNA

Yep ... I'd keep it private too.

In case you need a reminder - there is a common thread to both Rempt and Fowler's less than happy ending at Annapolis. At the end of yesterday's episode of Midrats, I asked Navy Times's Phil Ewing the following,

... you had Rempt and Fowler both leaving under clouds - clouds really of their own making. If you could sit down with the incoming Supe over a Coke-a-cola, ... and he was nice enough to ask you, .. "What should I not focus on, or what should I not do over the next year so I could concentrate getting the Academy and my leadership on a firm setting? "

Phil's response was spot on.

If I were having this Coke-a-cola with him as a reporter, what I would ask him is, "How can you ensure your immediate constituency in Annapolis; the many alumni and many friends of the Academy out there, that you and the Academy's priorities are in the right place."

He might say, "I am going to continue what my predecessor might be doing." or he may say, "Here is the new way I want to go."

But I think that what keeps coming up over and over in the story that we at Navy Times have done and other reporters have done is that the Naval Academy right now is a football oriented/Diversity orientated school that seems to take its other responsibilities at lower levels of importance. I know that the Administration outgoing and incoming might dispute that, but that is what comes through in the reporting that you hear from sources up there, the IG Report the Navy did that detailed all these things - and so on one had there is a lot of pressure from alumni to beat Army and have a good football team and there is a lot of pressure from Big Navy to bring as many non-white Midshipmen aboard as they possibly can in order to get this hypothetically diverse officer corps that the Navy wants to build some years down the line.

But on the other hand, they seem to be losing sight of what a lot of people would agree are their core goals at Annapolis to get those goals. So I would be very curious if that is going to be and that is the way it is going to stay, or there are new directions he wants to take the institution.

39 comments:

Insightful. A reporter points out that the new guy could stay the course, or take the school in a new direction. Brilliant insight. I bet he's curious what that new direction might be, and might like to write a story about it either way. That's probably why he makes up an answer to the hypothetical question he might ask. "Spot on" indeed.

<span>"But I think that what keeps coming up over and over in the story that we at Navy Times have done and other reporters have done is that the Naval Academy right now is a <span>football oriented/Diversity orientated school that seems to take its other responsibilities at lower levels of importance."</span></span><span><span></span></span><span><span>Hey Alpha Troll, he was spot on. And you didn't even quote him correctly. The exact wording of Phil's quote is important: a) an obligation to continue your predecessor's work / not s*** all over his legacy or b) a Come to Jesus that the past policies were bogus and going a different way. Honor is important to those of us who served/serve. It will play into the new Supe's decision on how to proceed.</span></span><span><span></span></span><span><span>Before you rip into a man who makes his bones communicating, perhaps you should actually read what he said. Would have thought after this week that we had learned our lessons about not reading and/or listening to / watching entire paragraphs/speeches...</span></span>

The academy has been straying from its primary goal and leaning towards the touchy feely, diversity drivel as the administration prays at the alter of the Congress-critters. I have been most disappointed for the selling of their honor for political expediency. Once again, they gave an inch, and then the politicians took a mile. Cuts are still coming, but now they are coming on top of a broken Fleet. Nice plan you admirals had. :(

<span>Sid,</span><span>"Phil's professional observation" </span>Phil's profession is Journalism. The conclusion that someone will either continue on or change course is not exactly earth shattering. Perhaps asking a professional journalist (with zero military experience) what a professional military officer should do, is what the US has come to?

AC: the alpha and omega of Phil's comments is not whether or not the incoming supe is going to stay or alter course. Phil echo's an observation made by many, crystallized by the CDR, that USNA has priorities that are contradictory to its mission. PERIOD.

That being said, what is YOUR profession, Alpha? What are YOUR credentials? Phil Ewing is an outstanding young reporter. He covers Surface Warfare from an outside perspective with integrity and honesty--something that we should celebrate instead of insult. The Navy needs press coverage. Would you rather be reading MC2 Umptyfratz doing a "By Direction" piece on Officer of the Deck Underway Diversity Attainment Programs? The fact that we have someone actually telling our story, fairly and accurately, is something we should nurture, not put down. Are you perhaps jealous that people are listening to Phil and not you, Alfalfa?

Let's not forget that the reason that VADM Fowler is leaving has more to do with the IG Report, the Honor Concept review, and a couple of well-publicized personnel decisions than it does with his failure to follow the guidance received from his superiors.

I agree with Mr. Ewing in his assessment of the current priorities at USNA, although I might add that the pressure to field a competitive football team has as much to do with funding other Midn activities and athletics as it does with the alumni.

I wish the new Supe well, but unless the SECNAV, CNO, et al, decide to revise those priorities I doubt that little will change.

Negaitve. The answer to "The meaning of life, the Universe and everything." Geez....keep up (or if you haven't read/watched "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe," then you don't know what you don't know... :) )!

"Alpha Fail" Nice one. Thanks for your contribution to the discussion. That's almost as insightful as <span>"I am going to continue what my predessor [sic] might be doing." or he may say, "Here is the new way I want to go."</span>

The Supe was doing what he was told to do. Guidance came from above. Anyone notice that once again the current plebe class was hailed as the more diverse class?

As we say in the aviation community, VADM Fowler suffered from poor headwork. The IG report was the nail in the coffin.

Don't think for one minute the direction will change. SecDef, SecNav, Chairman, CNO are all the same. COG will remain the same. There will be more attention on positive PR and less access to the Brigade.

"There is a rotten, pervasive failure of leadership at Annapolis. And it begins at the top. Though, regrettably, such a failure is fostered by Navy leadership farther upstream. Vice Admiral Fowler should have been relieved of his duties after the shame of the USNA Color Guard fiasco. He wasn’t. The reason he wasn’t is that his actions and decisions are part and parcel of the ugly business end of pushing forward the CNO’s priority of “diversity”. The Superintendent and the CNO have repeatedly decided against doing what is right in favor of doing what is politically advantageous. It is a line, once crossed, that is increasingly easy to rationalize crossing. That is the symptom of the epidemic of political correctness brainwashing that has eroded our confidence, our readiness, and our security across DoD. And it needs to end."

True. The superintendent has a very short chain of command above him. Rot in Annapolis is just rot spreading from the Washington Navy Yard. If Washington REALLY wanted it fixed it would be fixed... PRONTO!

Hey bubba, did you ever play football? in my humble opinion, a game is a sport if it requires a degree of athletecism. Football meets that requirement. Golf, bowling, maybe even baseball--those do not.

Football is a great sport. This isn't about football. It is about the Academy.

I did. Years ago, when players stayed on the field when possession changed.

Now it is a tv show.

Take any of the sports I named, people play the game long after school. We have a Roy Hobbs baseball league where 50 year old men throw the small ball. Does anybody play football unless they are in school or paid for it? No. The game sucks.

Who is going to sit on the bench waiting for their third down, short yardage situation? Men play Rugby; cattle play football.